Greetings

Greetings from Lithuanian Jewish Community Chairwoman Faina Kukliansky

unnamed

Dear members of the Jewish community, greetings to all on this holiday of Hanukkah!

I hope good feelings and warm and pleasant moments with loved ones will accompany you as you light the first Hanukkah candle. I wish you health and concord in your family, and that our children would grow up safe, dignified and happy and be proud of their parents and their roots.

It is a happy thing that there is ever-growing interest in the rich history of the Jews, and I probably won’t be making a mistake to say that there was never so much interest in the Jewish community as there is now, although so few Jews are left in Lithuania. The Jewish Community works actively to insure the rights and freedoms of our members and to promote Jewish interests. Unfortunately we weren’t able to achieve all our goals in 2016, but we will continue to strive after them in the coming year: monuments to those who shot Jews need to be removed, and Vilnius needs to have a monument commemorating those who rescued Jews from the Holocaust. We will continue to work on the issue of restitution of private property.

The Jewish Community is investing in the future, issuing scholarships and stipends for Jewish students and accomplished athletes. Plans for a new kindergarten have been completed, a kindergarten which will insure Jewish values are passed down to the youngest members of our community and prepare them for further education at the Jewish school.

One of the Lithuanian Jewish Community’s top priorities is to improve the living conditions of clients in our Social Programs Department. We help when emergencies and misfortune occur. This will remain our priority in 2017. We also help rescuers of Jews, whose humility and sincere gratitude encourage us to grow and improve. I would like to thank Jewish rescuer Regina for the gloves and socks she knitted.

The Community building itself has become lighter and cozier. We have new audio-visual equipment in the Community concert hall and there are always new and different exhibitions on display. It’s a great joy that there is cultural life, ferment and creativity in the community, and that performers from Lithuania, Israel, the USA, the Netherlands, Romania and other countries perform concerts here. It is also a happy occasion that we have deepened our contacts with the foreign embassies, other countries, municipal institutions and NGOs. Thanks to this cooperation legal amendments were finally adopted to make it easier for Litvaks to restore Lithuanian citizenship. We signed an agreement on cooperation with the American Jewish Committee, we are enjoying wonderful relations with other world Jewish organizations and we are expanding contacts in the West as well as in the East, with the Jewish communities in India and Japan.

Interest in religion is reviving as well. We have two rabbis working at the Community who give lessons educating young and old on various topics in Judaism.

In cooperation with international Jewish organizations and based on their recommendations, we have increased security at the Community and synagogue buildings, and are approaching western standards of security.

We have the only kosher café in Vilnius. The Bagel Shop has attracted significant attention and television crews from Canada, Germany and of course Lithuania, too, have featured the café. It has become a place where not only Jews gather, but also aficionados of Jewish cuisine and culture. Our challa-baking event was a good time for all, and US ambassador Anne Hall was enchanted by the experience. The Jewish languages project carried out with the Cultural Heritage Department attracted much attention by many residents of the Lithuanian capital and visitors from elsewhere. In greeting you all, I invite Community members to show even greater initiative and self-confidence in proposing ways to make their hopes and dreams come true, because the Community exists to benefit its members.

My holiday greetings go out as well to Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon and the chairmen of the regional communities: Gennady Kofman, Gercas Žakas, Artūras Taicas, Feliksas Puzemskis, Moisej Šapiro and Josifas Buršteinas. Thank you all for the active roles you play and for working together.

Khag Khanuka Sameakh!

Lithuanian National Radio and Television Names Marius Ivaškevičius Man of the Year

lrtradijas-1

Marius Ivaškevičius, the writer and organizer of a Holocaust commemoration march in Molėtai, Lithuania, has been named Man of the Year for 2016 by Lithuanian National Radio and Television.

Last May Ivaškevičius published an internet appeal for the public to attend a march in his hometown along the route Jews were taken to their deaths in 1941. He followed this appeal with an essay called “I’m Not Jewish,” a translation of which attracted the most visitors to any single item on the Lithuanian Jewish Community web site ever.

Ivaškevičius’s march in Molėtai attracted international attention and dominated the Lithuanian media on August 29, 2016. About 3,000 people from Lithuania and abroad marched from the town square to the mass grave site, the same route about 2,000 Jews marched to their deaths 75 years earlier.

Read more

First Hanukkah Light Lit at Lithuanian Jewish Community

Israel’s ambassador to Lithuania Amir Maimon and Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky lit the first Hanukkah candle on a menorah on the balcony of the Community building in Vilnius Saturday night. Vilnius Choral Synagogue cantor Shmuel Yatom added to the beauty and dignity of the ceremony with his performance of a hymn.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Saturday evening, December 24, marked the beginning of the Hanukkah holiday. Hanukkah is always celebrated for eight days, beginning on the 25th day of Kislev on the Jewish calendar. The word itself is often explained as coming from a root for inauguration, consecration and dedication.

Read more

Sholem Aleichem Students Celebrate Hanukkah

Vilniaus Šolomo Aleichemo ORT gimnazijos vaikai švenčia Chanuką

Gymnasium director for informal education Ela Pavinskienė said students in a volunteer group had learned how to make decorative garlands which were hung up around the school. The teacher taught students in grades 1 to 5 about the holiday, story and meaning of Hanukkah, and about kosher food rules. The students learned how to make traditional Hanukkah doughnuts.

Pavinskienė said students from grades 1 to 4 held a concert directed by third-graders, with each grade contributing a song, dance or skit. All participants received a doughnut and a small gift. The children came to the concert in their holiday best and in a festive mood. There was a contest for best homemade menorah. The menorahs are now on display on windowsills on the second floor. Each grade also held a light-show with music.

Children were asked to make doughnuts at home with their parents, and so many delicious doughnuts were brought in. A lottery was held for those who had contributed doughnuts with the winner selected at random who received a special prize.

ort-spurgu-ragavimas

Hanukkah Greetings from Jewish Telegraphic Agency

jta

Friends,

JTA was founded in 1917 to inform the world about the plight of Jewish refugees after World War I.

As we get set to turn 100, more than 1 million Jews still live in Europe. They aren’t refugees, but they face alarming developments — including anti-Jewish violence from jihadist terrorists and spikes in anti-Semitism, anti-Israel activism and political extremism. The post-Holocaust framework that has kept the peace in Europe for 70 years is teetering.

One thing that hasn’t changed and won’t change: JTA is paying attention — and keeping you informed about the lives of our brothers and sisters in Europe.

We are on the ground with a full-time reporter and a network of correspondents.

To continue and even expand our reporting efforts, we need your help.

Your financial support is critical to our efforts. Please make a tax-deductible gift today. Join our community of supporters who believes that keeping everyone informed and connected helps Jewish communities throughout the world remain safe and strong.

May the Hanukkah lights bring much warmth and joy to your home.

Sincerely,

Ami Eden,
CEO and executive editor
newsdesk@jta.org

P.S. A generous donor will match all new and increased gifts to JTA. Thank you in advance for your support. Should you wish, mail your check to JTA, 24 W. 30th St., 4th Floor, New York, NY 10001.

If you have already made you year-end gift, you have my heartfelt thanks.

Fayerlakh 45th Birthday Concert: No Signs of Old Age Yet

A concert to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the founding of the Fayerlakh Jewish song and dance ensemble took place December 18 with an overflow crowd of well-wishers and fans. A large screen projection by the stage relayed images to those in the very back of the hall, and Jews from the regional communities as well as the Lithuanian capital turned out in abundance. The group performed some songs in Yiddish and the birthday coincided with the issuing of a new CD by the collective which includes qualified musicians from across the generations, from children to the elderly.

Of the ensembles 40 or so members, the youngest is just five and the most senior about to turn 70. The little flame which sprang up in 1971 burns on, and the audience on December 18 included more non-Jews than Jews, including a delegation from the Association of Disabled Poles who attended in wheelchairs.

The entire year has been a celebration of the collective’s birthday and in March Lithuanian prime minister Butkevičius sent warm wishes for their continued success. The ensemble was presented with a large cake with small flames at the mid-December celebration, and Lithuanian parliamentary speaker Pranckietis hailed the longest-surviving musical group in Lithuanian history as well.

Klaipėda Jewish Community Hold Charity Action at Klaipėda Children’s Hospital

For the fifth year in a row the Klaipėda Jewish Community has carried out a charity campaign to help the patients at the Klaipėda Children’s Hospital. According to Jewish custom, children receive a bit of money and gifts during Hanukkah which they must share. Children donated gifts to children being treated at the trauma unit of the hospital. Children’s Hospital chief physician Klaudija Bobianskienė told children and parents about the Children’s Hospital and showed them the latest diagnostic equipment. Diapers were donated to the newborns’ unit during the charity event as well.

Let’s Honor Our Hanukkah Traditions

Lithuania is a country with roots in the Litvak (mitnagdic, Jewish Orthodox) tradition. Our community is the direct inheritor of more than 600 years of Jewish history and the successor to the traditions of the Vilna Gaon, and we keep our traditions.

When the Jewish museum chose the Gaon’s name for their title, we understood it as a sign of respect for mitnagdic tradition. Has someone proposed changing that name? Let’s honor our traditions during Hanukkah as well. Lighting a menorah in a city square is a Chabad tradition, and Litvaks do not encourage that sort of celebration of Hanukkah, instead, everyone is invited to Vilnius’s only working synagogue.

Electric lights are most often used in huge Hanukkah candelabra displays in central squares or other prominent areas of cities. Chabad reports this “tradition” began with the seventh Chabad rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Shneerson, who ordered these types of Hanukkah menorah displays in public spaces, the first having been set up in Philadelphia in 1974. Chabad Hassidim then began to carry out these sorts of campaigns around the world. These campaigns have not always and not everywhere met with support and approval. Besides different anti-Semitic attacks, there are on-going discussions even now, at least in the USA and other countries which adhere to the principle of the separation of church and state, which precludes displays of religious symbols in public spaces, a ban which is now and again in places applied to Christian symbols, and therefore should be applied to other religious symbols as well. Different municipalities, however, find a way around this ban, adopting decisions which, for example, state that neither Christmas trees nor gigantic menorahs erected in public spaces are religious. We could probably agree with that belief, having in mind these huge menorahs are not traditional in public spaces. All the more so since they employ electric lights rather than wax candles or oil. But the diverse politicians who participate in these lighting ceremonies likely participate viewing them as a cultural rather than religious holiday, seeking to demonstrate their tolerance towards ethnic minorities living in their countries.

For a number of years there has been a giant menorah set up in Vilnius at the initiative of Chabad, and politicians and diplomats like to attend the lighting ceremonies, thinking they have found an opportunity to express solidarity with the Jews of Lithuania, while the more ancient tradition of lighting the Hanukkah candles in private homes and at their entrances goes largely unnoticed. It is these lights which are supported to perform the role of testimony, the most important religious meaning: the lights should be lit at the entrance to the home or on window sills, so they can be seen from outside, as a testimony, according to the Talmudic sages. Although Chabad Hassidim are historically inseparable from the Jews of Lithuania (their communities in Vilnius date back to the time of the Russian Empire), they do not represent all Jews of Lithuania, and especially not those who consider themselves misnagdim, often referred to simply as Litvaks. Perhaps the city of Vilnius this year could look for some sort of Solomonic solution which wouldn’t preclude the Litvak community and would respect their traditions. Or simply point out that the erection of gigantic menorahs is not automatically perceived as a universal Jewish tradition.

Hanukkah Envy

cimen

by Geoff Vasil

There’s a bit of mystery as to what Hanukkah is among non-Jews. I grew up in America and went to an “alternative” grade school in the 1970s, where they attempted to teach us about different cultures. One winter, when I was in the first grade, some nice ladies came and told us the Hanukkah story. I think even then they stressed it was NOT the Jewish Christmas, and they told us the traditional gift for children was a simple orange, which were scarce in Northern Europe and reminded Jews of their true homeland.

That’s the good news about Hanukkah, if you’re worried about what gifts to buy. Hanukkah isn’t a big gift-giving holiday. Children may expect an orange or Hanukkah gelt, foil-wrapped chocolate coins. It’s traditional for children to spin the dreidl on Hanukkah, and foods fried in oil—doughnuts and potato pancakes or latkes—are traditional, for reasons to be explained below.

Of course in Western society, in majority-Christian cultures, Hanukkah must compete in the mind of the child with that grand finale of all holidays, Christmas. Christmas is so pervasive it has been adopted even by the non-Christian Japanese. In the Soviet Union they could never quite get rid of it, despite determined efforts to create a universal Winter Holiday with all sorts of fairytale and cartoon characters (including Disney characters towards the end-times for the USSR). Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu only really met his fate after he outlawed Christmas. Santa Claus seems to have some very powerful friends, and as the saying goes, you can’t fight city hall, in this case, you can’t fight the pull of the North Pole and Santa’s workshop. Of course Jews aren’t fighting, or joining, just maintaining what is called the minor holiday of Hanukkah in parallel with the Christian festival.

Read more

Makabi Soccer Team Fighting to Win

The mini soccer team of the Makabi Lithuanian Athletics Club is competing successfully in the Vilnius district tournament Select II in the Sunday League, which includes 10 teams. After foru matches Makabi are now in fourth place. The tournament continues and let’s hope after some injured players return our team makes it to the top. Good luck!

makabi-futb2

Birthdays in December

LŽB 2016m. gruodžio mėnesio jubiliatai

Vilnius Jewish Community

Etia Suvorova (December 2)

German Levin (1 December 9)

Ale Šimulynienė (December 10)

Dora Mesengiser (December 17)

Anastazija Votrinienė (December 18)

Saida Mazuro (December 22)

Olga Orlovskaja (December 26)

Palina Pailis (December 26)

Kaunas Jewish Community

Ženė Živulinskienė (December 1)

Borisas Jocheles (December 3)

Rema Lorman (December 5)

Read more

Thank You for the Wonderful Organization of Events

Padėka už renginių organizavimą

Recently events held by the Lithuanian Jewish Community have surpassed one another in the quality of organization and the positive emotional interest and participation by Community members have been a source of joy. LJC chairwoman Faina Kukliansky would like to thank organizers and participants:

“All of your contributions have made the life of Community members more interesting and diverse. We will remember the warm and moving moments we spent together when we all kneaded dough together with our daughters and grand-daughters, with our friends and guests during Sabbath challa-making events at all the communities in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Panevėžys, Ukmergė and Šiauliai, all of us joining together for the first time in the global Jewish Shabbos Project. I thank project coordinator Dovilė Rūkaitė, all the heads of the regional Lithuanian Jewish communities and the Bagel Shop cooks who participated together. I also thank the Lithuanian Cultural Council who supported the project.

I would also like to thank the organizers of the Mini-Limmud conference and its main supporters, the European Jewish Fund and the Goodwill Foundation, who supported the preparation of the program and the organization of interesting meetings. The traditional Limmud conference never fails to attract a group of concerned and engaged members of the LJC and their families to its ceremonial Sabbath dinner. It is important for us to come together and talk, to spend time in a pleasant environment, so we always strive to gather on weekends, in a beautiful natural setting at a good hotel, and to invite interesting guests to take part in a meaningful program, see famliar faces and discuss current events. Mini-Limud coordinator Žana Skudovičienė, who fields all preferences and ideas for the conference and balances different interests, insured that this year’s Limmud was memorable and event which provided good emotions and rest and recreation.

Thank you, all of you!

Faina Kukliansky, chairwoman
Lithuanian Jewish Community

World Union of Jewish Students Nominates LJC Student Union for Awards

The World Union of Jewish Students has nominated the Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students of the Lithuanian Jewish Community for awards in two categories.

Lithuanian Union of Jewish Students director Amit Belaitė is up for one of the awards, and says her friends and colleagues in the Union need to learn more about Jewish life and Jewish traditions. She said Jewish students in Lithuania have been cut off from many Jewish things, including how to celebrate Sabbath, largely because Jewishness was forced into hiding in Lithuania after the Holocaust. She added there is a revival underway in Lithuania, including of Jewish holidays our great-grandparents celebrated, and said now there is a great deal of communication with Litvaks of the same age as Union members living around the world who have not lost their traditions.

amit

Read more

Three Braids, Three Challas, Three Generations

fa-chala-project

The Lithuanian Jewish Community invites you to participate in the international Shabbos project!

We’re inviting all Community members to come bake challa and celebrate the Sabbath together on November 10 in Vilnius!

Jewish communities around the world will be baking traditional challa bread on November 10. This fun project has been going on for three years and includes Jewish communities in 65 countries. This is the first time the Lithuanian Jewish Community is participating. We’re inviting all regional communities, families, mothers and daughters to gather together and bake challa together in their own communities. Grandmothers, mothers, granddaughters, we’re hoping you will all come knead challa together at one table!

Registration is required because space is limited. goo.gl/fEmzp4

Program:

6:00 P.M. We activate the yeast and knead the dough

6:30 P.M. The story of the Sabbath

7:00 P.M. We braid the challa

7:30 P.M. We bake the challa

More information available here.

Happy 70th!

Happy birthday, Davidas Kocas!

Happy 70th birthday to Davidas Kocas! On November 6 he’ll turn 70.

Davidas is an important part of the team and as a member of the executive board of the Vilnius Religious Community he monitors Jewish cemeteries and organizes clean-up activities. A hearty HAPPY BIRTHDAY from the entire Lithuanian Jewish Community!

We wish you great health and that everything you undertake would be successful! That the people you love would be happy! That your home would always be open to friends! That you would never lack strength! That you will always be happy in all things!

Mazl tov!

Happy Birthday, Maša Grodnikienė!

Happy birthday, Maša!

Lithuanian Jewish Community deputy chairwoman Maša Grodnikienė is celebrating her 70th birthday! Maša is the initiator and intellectual force behind many of the cultural events held by the Community and has been deputy chairwoman for over 20 years now. Thanks to her the first World Litvak Congress was held in Vilnius in 2001, marking a turning point within the Community and the renaissance of Litvak culture in Lithuania. Maša has contributed so very much to fostering Litvak culture within the Community and in the world.

On the occasion of her birthday, the Community has nothing but the most heart-felt words to say to Maša. We congratulate her on her birthday and wish her the best health, joy at home with her grandchildren, many more creative initiatives in the Jewish Community, a great mood and many more warm moments in life. Happy birthday!

Mazl tov!